Don't Turn Out the Lights, by Bernard Minier
If you are looking for late night shudders, then this book is for you. Last October, Mulholland Books released in the UK the translation of Bernard Minier's thriller masterpiece, Don't Turn Out the Lights (N'Eteins pas la lumière, in French).
It should not come as a surprise that Mulholland, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company, should have decided to publish Minier's novel: their website states their ambition to publish books you can’t stop reading, and to specialise in the history of suspense. When taking the "Mulholland Test", Minier asserted his love for Kubrick's Clockwork Orange and villain Hannibal Lecter - and from these elements only, readers will immediately understand that Minier's work will keep them on the edge of their seats.
And indeed the story of Don't Turn Out the Lights fits the description. Minier proves once again that he masters the thriller genre with this last addition to the "Servaz series", a series of books revolving around the investigations of Commandant Martin Servaz, a policeman in the French Pyrénées.
The novel tells the story of how one day, Christine Steinmeyer, a radio journalist, finds a suicide note in her mailbox. Convinced that it does not have to do anything with her, she brushes it aside - until a radio listener calls her in the midst of her show to claim that she is guilty. That's only the beginning. Bit by bit, her life is turned upside down. But who among her friends and family hates her enough to want to destroy her? And why? Commandant Martin Servaz is on leave when he is sent a key card to a hotel room - the room where an artist committed suicide a year earlier. He soon uncovers evidence of a truly terrifying crime. Could someone really be cruelly, consciously hounding women to death? Both he and Christine will find out...but it may not be in time.
If you want to find out more about Bernard Minier and Don't Turn Out the Lights, here are a few helpful links:
-Podcast with Ruth Tross, Editorial Director at Hodder & Stoughton, and Bernard Minier
-Q&A with Bernard Minier on the Financial Times website
-an article Bernard wrote for CrimeTime
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